Spirituality and aging seminar nurtures courage and resilience
“Old age is not for sissies,” quipped Celia McBride, one of six presenters at the annual Aging and Spirituality Seminar sponsored by the Schlegel-University of Waterloo Research Institute for Aging (RIA) and hosted by Conrad Grebel University College on June 13-14. But, McBride said, we all have access to an “infinite well” of spiritual resources…
Watch: Conrad Grebel’s viral video
Over the last two years, Conrad Grebel University College’s YouTube channel has become a go-to source for quality gamelan videos. This moderate internet fame is spurred on by one performance in particular—a piece called “Hujan Mas” performed by the University of Waterloo Balinese Gamelan at their end-of-term concert in March 2017. Watch it now: This…
MCC Saskatchewan hosts successful relief sale and auction
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Saskatchewan hosted its 49th annual relief sale and auction at Saskatoon’s Prairieland Park on June 7 and 8. An estimated 750 people took in a supper and concert with Saskatoon bluegrass band, Corner Grass on June 7, while about 2,500 people attended the sale the following day. New to this year’s…
The first signs of promise
Two broken chalkboards thrown by the 190-kilometre-per-hour winds of Cyclone Idai bake in the sun on what remains of the crumpled tin roof of one neighbourhood’s only preschool. In mid-March, Cyclone Idai slammed into central Mozambique near the coastal city of Beira, tearing off roofs, destroying homes and businesses, downing trees, displacing tens of thousands…
#ChurchToo conference addresses sexual misconduct
In the midst of the #MeToo movement, in which those in positions of power are being called to account for sexual abuse, a conference hosted by four Manitoba Mennonite organizations acknowledged that it happens in the church, too. From May 31 to June 1, about 100 church leaders and lay people gathered at Canadian Mennonite…
Watch: ‘Gettin’ it done’ with MDS
The folks who volunteer with Mennonite Disaster Service are “gettin’ it done.” We recently published a photo essay featuring Canadian Mennonites who are volunteering with MDS in Texas. Now, you can watch a short video that highlights the work of the Anabaptist disaster response organization. Last year, more than 5,400 volunteers from churches across Canada and the U.S.…
Kuri talks ‘No Village’
Almost two years after he started recording it, Kuri has released his new album. Titled No Village, the 10-song collection came out today via Nevado Records. No Village is the follow-up to Human Nature, an EP the Abbotsford, B.C. musician—born Scott Currie—released at the end of 2016. (Nevado Records reissued the EP last October.) It’s…
‘It Takes Raindrops to Fill a Lake’
More than 50 years ago, Walter Paetkau founded Abbotsford Community Services (ACS), an umbrella organization bringing various local service organizations under one roof. From humble beginnings in a two-room office, today ACS is now the largest community services organization in the province, with 90 programs fostering community well-being and social justice that encompass employment services,…
A small congregation with a big heart
Lucy Roca bundled herself up warmly and made her way through the blustery streets of Sherbrooke, Que., on the way to Refuge de Paix early one Sunday morning. It was the kind of grey, stormy day when Sunday worship services are cancelled because it is too wintry to be outside. It was also a morning…
Watch: Spotlight on Cris Derksen
The bio on Cris Derksen’s website says it well: The “Juno-nominated and classically trained cellist and composer braids the traditional and contemporary, weaving her classical background and her Indigenous ancestry together with new school electronics to create genre-defying music.” In 2018, the half-Cree, half-Mennonite musician from northern Alberta wrote a piece for the Eybler Quartet.…
